November 21, 2023 / By mobanmarket
HEWLETT, NY — Asher Mathathias, a longtime resident of the Five Towns, has a set of life experiences, even if he doesn’t recall them all.
Mathathias survived the Holocaust as a baby living in Greece. We spoke for the Patch Weekly Spotlight on the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht.
“All hell broke loose in Jewish communities, with numerous people dying and businesses destroyed,” Mathathias told Patch. “Little did we know that this would be a prelude to the most heinous crime in human history.”
Mathathias said at least 60,000 Greek Jews, including his maternal grandparents, were rounded up and taken to Auschwitz.
“We lived in a mountain cave,” Mathathias said of his family’s effort to avoid the Nazis.
Despite the “historic levels” of anti-Semitism on our soil, as described recently by FBI Director Christopher Wray, Mathathias doesn’t think it can ever reach Nazi-era hate again.
“I cannot imagine that America would have this paradoxism of anti-Semitism that is going on today,” he said. “The numbers are astounding for a liberal, democratic society like ours. I refuse to believe that; maybe it’s foolhardy on my part because German Jews also believed it could not happen in Germany.
“But I don’t think it can happen in America because of the diversity of society.”
Mathathias is an adjunct professor of political science at St. John’s University.
You can watch the full interview with Professor Mathathias below.
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